A Tourist in Mayberry

2/8) Residents: The Wild Bunch

Quote by George Burns: "You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old."

Sheriff Gus Nichols was known to frequent the area and because he was such a jovial, likable fellow he made several friends in the retirement community and infiltrated the Wild Bunch, as he liked to call them. It was a credit to the respect they held for him that the Wild Bunch told the sheriff what they called themselves.

The Wild Bunch is not only the most fun-loving group in the center, but also the most mysterious and definitely the group with the most insight into the criminal mind. While a lot of the residents of Riverview like to talk about the good 'ol days and their role in them, the Wild Bunch is notoriously tight-lipped about their past, though they do discuss their travels and their exploits in what appears to be a code only they understand.

Initially, Sheriff Nichols thought the group was harmless (calling them the Wild Bunch made him smile inside) but, after years of watching their poker faces, he was convinced they were not mild-mannered, paper-pushers in the past. Their discussions were often about recent crimes, the more brutal the crime, the livelier the discussion. They loved local crimes and this was how Sheriff Nichols found his endearment to the group.

Sheriff Nichols's favorite topic of interest was local crime. Sheriff Nichols knew all the old stories of shootings, and stabbings, betrayal and deceit. He was a walking, talking encyclopedia of who did what to who, and when, and sometimes he knew why.

The Wild Bunch loved Sheriff Nichols and his tales of revenge and love gone hate.

They listened as he discussed the doctor blowing up his wife and her lover downtown in a car bomb. They wanted to know how many men and women were hanged from the Allison Tree in Dobson. They traveled to a high school in nearby Stokes County to see a play dedicated to the tale of a father who murdered seven members of his family from infant to wife on Christmas day in 1929. For weeks the Wild Bunch discussed and debated the various theories and what drove a man to murder his own children. They were an unsympathetic crew and quickly dismissed insanity as the cause.

The Wild Bunch's favorite real life local crime story was the Hillsville, Virginia courthouse massacre in 1914 that left a judge, prosecutor, witness, and some bystanders dead in what the Mount Airy News called "The Story of the Century".

"Sometimes people get mad and take the law into their own hands," was their response to the Hillsville shootout. "Don't make it right," they added.

The Wild Bunch also loved the unsolved cases and disappearances, and especially loved to hear about incidents involving what they called - "Hmm, might not be an accident."

Sheriff Nichols usually trusted his intuition about people and normally his gut told him right away when he should be distrustful of a person, but his opinions of the members of the Wild Bunch changed over the years.

Matthew Jenkins was a mystery to the Sheriff. He was suave and confident around women. He opened doors for the ladies, and the ladies noticed him, even the younger ones. He visited his Lacey each day and seemed to care about his fellow Wild Bunch members, but there was something cold about him. He reminded the Sheriff of law officers he knew over the years. Matthew could handle himself in an emergency, and yet there was something there, something that could snap before you knew it snapped.

Shiela Antoine, who the Sheriff initially believed was a former secretary to a big wheel in DC because that is what she told him, now seemed like she possessed more than typing and dictation skills. There was a southern belle air about her, including the accent and the sweet, flirtatious personality. While she was around his age, she was still lovely and poised enough she made a man nervous and eager to please her. One sideways glance from her and she could ask a man to do anything in the world for her, and you would, and not only would, but wanted to. Sheriff Nichols knew he was not the only male who felt this way because he saw countless males from young orderlies to elder gentlemen succumb to her charms. Shiela was sex appeal personified and was well aware of all the power this gave her.

Izito Lee was the opposite. Where Shiela was vivacious and personable, Izito was thoughtful and perceived as introverted to outsiders. He was an older version of a coke-bottle-glasses-wearing nerd. He knew computers and technology better than a twenty year-old, Best Buy geek squad team member. He also knew science and math and kept a complete set of forensics textbooks in his room he read for pleasure. While Izito could spout off sometimes morbid facts in a rapid fire, unnerving fashion to an uncomfortable listener, when he did this, he was apologetic and backtracked if he felt he appeared to be boastful or, as he called it, a "wise ass".

It was difficult to tell if Shiela and Izito were together as a couple or not. They shared the comfortableness of an old married couple and a home. It was evident they shared a history by their current flirtations, but Izito seemed to not mind Shiela's dalliances with other men and seemed to ignore them, like it was normal.

Matthew was, thought the Sheriff, the unofficial leader of the Wild Bunch, but it was Izito who seemed to hold them together. Izito was the one who kept the running poker game going and kept mental tallies of who was up and who was down. He was the person who issued an invitation to join the game, and while it was not a rule locals were never invited to play, they were never permanent members of the game, except for the Sheriff. Izito was the one who kept notes on topics discussed with or without Sheriff Nichols present. Izito was the record keeper and historian for all the Wild Bunch exploits.

Where Izito was the note taker, Shiela the social butterfly, Matthew the charmer, Reid Brentley was a man of few words - a mostly monosyllabic man. He would occasionally interject a nod or a "humpf" or a one word offering, but he rarely spoke in a complete sentence. He was solid, quick and fierce and stayed in shape by lifting weights and running through downtown usually in the morning when it was still dark outside. He was unusually big, like a college or professional football player, but more like a linebacker than a lineman. It was impossible to determine his age because you did not expect someone so big and in such good shape to be over fifty. Reid was a stalwart bastion of strength. He appeared to be the muscle of the group, though the Sheriff doubted if any of the bunch needed Reid for his muscles.

While Sheriff Nichols visited often and talked with the Wild Bunch and shared his stories, sometimes his visits were official. Sometimes, he needed their expertise on current crimes. Last fall, the Sheriff asked them about missing teenagers, but the group convinced him they were probably runaways. Currently, the Sheriff was visiting to talk to them about a more urgent missing persons case.

The mayor of Mount Airy had vanished.

Author's Notes: Many of the local crimes discussed by Sheriff Nichols with the Wild Bunch are local true crime stories. The Hillsville Tragedy was national news at the time.